


A Heart Full of You

by Gryphoness



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen, Prostitution mention, Secret Relationship, The June Rebellion, child abuse mention, nothing graphic just references, Éponine is only mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 02:45:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9300617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gryphoness/pseuds/Gryphoness
Summary: Éponine isn't the only Thénardier girl who loves a barricade boy. Azelma doesn't get a happy ending either.





	

Azelma's parents don't know about Feuilly. She cares about him too much to expose him to the vultures that gave her birth. They assume, when she vanishes at night, that she has started selling herself, like her sister occasionally does. After a few weeks, Papa starts expecting her to present him with the money he thinks she is earning. When he receives none, she has some new bruises to hide. She mentions this to Feuilly one night, when he notices the dark marks on her skin. And after that, he presses a few coins into her hand at the end of each night. Azelma feels guilty over this, knowing he must not have much money to spare, but he assures her that what he gives her does him no harm. 

They walk together by the river, his ink-stained hand entwined with her dirt-encrusted one, and watch the moonlight dance on the water. They walk for hours, talking about anything and everything that comes into their minds. Feuilly talks more, but Azelma is content to listen. He tells her about Poland and the orphanage he grew up in, and his friends. Azelma is happy to just drink in all the things she doesn't know. He tells her about the revolution. She doesn't want to hear about that, but he tells her anyway.

He tells her that he is involved for _her_. For her, and everyone like her, whom life has treated unfairly. Azelma tries to protest that she manages, and so do the other, but he simply gives her a sad smile and answers that she makes do because she has no choice.

The students gather in the streets, speaking to the poor. The revolution, Feuilly tells her, as the moon bleaches his straw-colored hair, is building. When the time comes, the people will rise and fight. Azelma, who lives among the people to whom they preach, does not think as optimistically. But Feuilly is so sincere and enthusiastic that she cannot find it in her heart to ruin his hope. But she doesn't think about it much. This revolution is a far-off concept, a dream for young men to dream. She has more important things to focus on, like where she will sleep the next night and when she'll next have food in her belly. And she has Feuilly, happy and healthy and there with her. She meets him each night, and hours pass in a sort of happy daze.

Then General Lamarque dies, and people begin to whisper. Her parents rejoice at the thought of an uprising, of bodies to loot. Azelma has to find some private place to weep. She knows that this will end in tears and blood.

The barricade rises, but no one joins but those who built it. Papa rages over the continued absence of Éponine, grumbles about what he'll do when he gets his hands on her. Maman seems disinterested in the whole affair, sits at the table and stares at the stained wood. From the apartment her family squats in, Azelma can see where the boys sit, drinking. Feuilly starts singing, and Azelma leans out the window to listen. It is a song about the past, what past their short lives have, and his sweet voice seems to ache with the melancholy of it.

 _"Here's to pretty girls who went to our heads,"_ one of his friends sings, and Feuilly happens to glance towards where Azelma watches. His gray eyes meet her own brown ones, and it feels like a million words pass between them, millions of things that they both know, but will never be said.

He smiles at her, all sweetness and joy. Like a little boy off to play war, not a young man marching off to die. When the gunshots and screams begin, Azelma curls into a ball and sobs until she makes herself sick and Maman tells her to quit her blubbering and help her sort the looted valuables.

Éponine never comes home. The streets run with blood, cobblestones stained as red as her hair. She finds Feuilly, lying on the cold café floor, and nearly collapses with the pain and grief. She loved him, she loved him, she loves him still. It isn't enough.


End file.
